Etro Milan Fashion Week Spring Summer 2019 : Sufer girls

For this spring collection, unveiled in a week when Etro, in celebration of its 50th birthday, is also putting on an exhibition at Milan’s MUDEC museum, the holiday vibe was literal. Etro took the surfer girl - albeit primed for a 5-star vacation - as her muse, and threw some paisley-patterned surfboards down the catwalk, plus a real life champion surfer, the implausibly beautiful Victoria Vergara, to up the street cred.

Surfer girls seem to have seeped into fashion’s collective consciousness this season, most obviously at Calvin Klein, but also at Prada (those knitted surfer bootie/sandal hybrids) and Michael Kors (sunset printed knits) but none was as literal as Etro’s take. Sun-kissed and ready-salted, this was a holiday wardrobe heading on a Pacific jaunt with pit stops in California, Hawaii, and Japan. It comprised racks of zesty-coloured silk pyjama sets and crochet mini dresses, as well as towelling ponchos and patchwork cardigans to throw over sunburnt shoulders. Shells dripped from earrings and necks, wrists and ankles, lingering above little surf shoes and brocade slides. Evening options abounded - embroidered and patterned wrap dresses plus chiffon pleated ankle-grazers. “Good vibes,” was Etro’s verdict.